Doctors from Old Parkland Hospital remembered in video

Doctor documentary | Old Parkland Hospital

This Doctor documentary video about Old Parkland Hospital was commissioned by Crow Holdings. Interviews were conducted with Old Parkland Hospital alumni doctors, nurses, nursing students and faculty.

[Video transcript]

Dr. George Shropulos 1953

Training was different then. The training you got here, everybody, most people that are rotating internship so you got a little taste of everything and you can make up your mind which you wanted to do better. If you want to specialize. Now, if the internship, if you want to go to Ophthalmology, you’ll have an Ophthalmology internship. That’s why I keep emphasizing to be trained doctors here, [inaudible 00:00:30] take care of everybody.

Dr. George Boswell 1946-1955

There was something about the way nurses and doctors were trained to be nurses and doctors. Not specialists and, "I am a knee surgeon" and "I am a hip surgeon."

Laverne Holman Foster | Parkland Nursing School | 1950 - 1954

Parkland was a very good hospital. I imagined the best in town necause we certainly had the best doctors here.

Martha Bledsoe Sanford 1953-1956

Parkland was on the forefront of whatever was happening. With the initiation of the medical school, they attracted great doctors and that certainly grew over the years.

Marie Groh Libby 1951-1954

Doctors ran the hospital and we didn’t have any number crunches, telling you you cannot afford this. We didn’t have any health insurance telling you you can’t do this. The doctors made all the decisions.

Dr. Ronald Garvey 1953

The Department of Medicine was … I had November and December. In December, Christmas eve, I was in charge of the area where the people have polio we’re here and I believe it was either 36 or 38 patients that were there. For a young guy like me, that was tough. Two of them died and that was something that got my attention. I spend all of the next morning helping the family get organized. Of course, my wife was a little unhappy about that, but she got over it. She learned over the years that, that was going to happen again and again and again and might as well get with it.

Dr. James Holman 1943 - 1945

We work here at Parkland and this was the nurses quarters and I believe the first vaccine for Polio was given here where I remember in ‘55.

Dr. Boswell

My first year here. I got a whole big old salary of $10 a month plus room boarding and laundry but that was for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Every day the hospital owned your body and that was fine. The only rest we got some time, was flop on a patient [Inaudible 0:02:51] and sleep for 20 or 30 minutes then go up and get back to the operating room.

Dr. Holman

They said we can work two days and two nights and sleep on the third night if we need to.

Ms. Foster

We always stay in the dining room with the doctors. We always let the doctors go ahead first if the doctors came in while we were standing in line because they were always in a hurry it seemed like.

Marty Dunkin McMillan | Daughter of Nurse Helen C. Dunkin

There was huge level of respect that doctors were given in those days. They were God.

Vivian Meadows Mobley | Parkland Nursing School 1947 - 1953

I think the nurses all respected the doctors very much and were willing to do whatever the doctor asked them to do for the patient. There was great affection for them and respect.

Dr. Boswell

We were doctors and we took care of people. That was the most outstanding features of this institution.